The lack of a confirmed Attorney General by President Joe Biden doesn’t stop his Justice Department from tearing up the previous administration’s guidelines – or pushing the boundaries of its executive orders.
A lawyer appointed to serve as temporary head of the department’s civil rights division released a memo Friday reversing a last-minute attempt by the Trump administration to restrict interpretation of the 2020 Supreme Court decision that sex discrimination laws in the workplace also protect transgender people.
Attorney Greg Friel’s guideline pointed to Biden’s Inauguration Day executive order allowing transgender women to participate in women’s sports competitions as the basis for his decision to throw a Jan. 17 analysis written by Acting Assistant Attorney General John Daukas, who the department does not let the court’s decision in Bostock v Clayton County expand to other situations.
Biden’s executive order sparked a heated debate over identity and politics just hours after he took the oath of office on Wednesday.